Life
by bookluvr4life
Summary: Life happens while you're busy playing games. Just ask Burt Hummel.


A/N: This came about while I was listening to Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" while playing Life on my iPod and thinking about how insanely much I love Burt Hummel. And Kurt, of course. But Burt is seriously one of my all-time favorites and I love his parenting scenes. I Am Unicorn absolutely thrilled me (but Blaine as a Junior? Seriously? That pretty much threw the whole fandom off). Anyway, only posting this because it's my birthday and I'll be stressed as all get-out all day and look forward to coming home in approximately 23 hours and having some people say they like my stuffs. Yes, I'm shameless. Please review at the end anyway.

AU… which is clear in a very short while.

Here Goes Life

"Let's play a game, Daddy!" the little boy exclaimed as soon as dinner was over. Burt really just wanted to put his feet up and curl up next to his wife on the couch, but one look at his son's pleading eyes was enough to show how much Kurt wanted this, so he relented.  
>"Yeah, alright kiddo. Pick a game and put it on the coffee table while I help mom in the kitchen." he said, smiling at his wife and son in turn.<br>"Yay! Thanks Daddy!" the seven-year old said, bounding off to decide which game he wanted to play.  
>"You have no idea how much he's been wanting to play with you all day. Ever since he got home from school, he just kept asking when you'd be home from work. I told him he had to wait until after dinner was over to start bugging you though. From what you were saying during dinner, it's a good thing too. Sound like you had a stressful day at work." Elizabeth chatted as they gathered the dishes and stacked them. She began washing as Burt put what was left over in containers and put them in the fridge.<br>"Yeah, but it's bound to be tough taking over a business for a guy who doesn't want to retire. Clay hates that his health means he can't do anything anymore and he's being forced into nothingness in the business he started from the ground up." Burt replied, coming over to the sink to dry the dishes.  
>"Even without his health coming into play, he had to realize it was coming, the man is nearly seventy, after all!" Elizabeth said laughing.<br>"A man doesn't like thinking about becoming useless. I think he was planning on running the place until the day he died," Burt told her with a wry smile. "I know I do."  
>"And that day will be a long way off, Burt Hummel. We need you too much around here." Lizzie told him, "And don't kid yourself- you've been practically running that place since Kurt was two."<br>"Maybe. And hey, the two of us need you around here pretty bad too." he said wrapping his beautiful wife in a hug, ignoring the soap suds on her hands.  
>"Three." She corrected quietly, but he still heard her.<br>"Three?" Burt asked, disbelieving.  
>"You know how I've been feeling off for awhile? I went to the doctor earlier, he ran some tests and said I'm about 8 weeks along." Whatever else she was going to say was cut off with a deep kiss.<br>"This is amazing, Lizzie! Everything is going our way right now. I'm taking over the shop, we'll be making more money, and Kurt's doing great in school and he's been wanting-"  
>"Don't tell him yet, please." Elizabeth asked, interrupting her husband who seemed to have forgotten how stressful taking over the shop was in all the excitement. "I want to wait until I'm further along... Just in case." she quietly said, referencing an earlier miscarriage. Kurt had been too young to understand at the time, but now he would be devastated.<br>"Right. Yeah. But everything's gonna be great this time. I can feel it." he said, kissing his wife again.  
>"Daddy, come on!" an impatiently shrill voice called from the living room. "I'm waiting for you."<br>"I'll be right there, Buddy. Give me a minute." Burt called back, mindful of Elizabeth's close proximity. He kissed her quickly, "Fatherhood beckons, and someday I'll be dropping everything to play with you." he said, addressing his wife's still-flat stomach before heading out of the room.  
>"And after you play your game and give Kurt his bath and put him to bed, I'll be the one dropping everything to play with *you*" Lizzie called to him, somehow not loud enough for Kurt to hear but definitely loud enough to not be his imagination.<br>"I'll be looking forward to that." he muttered, wondering if it would be faster if he let Kurt win or tried to win whatever game they were playing himself. "What are we playing, Bud?" Burt asked, settling himself on the couch.  
>"Life!" the little boy exclaimed happily. "Look, I already set it up for us." he said,gesturing to the two cars with blue pegs already in them. "You're the red car 'cuz your truck is red, and I'm green 'cuz it's the best color ever!"<br>"Sounds good. How 'bout you spin to see which of us gets to go first." Burt told him, kissing his chances at an early night goodbye. His son had to pick a long-ass game to play that night.  
>"Two." Kurt stated dejectedly.<br>Burt carefully held the spinner with his fingertips... And as soon as he let go, it flew out of his fingers and across the table, nearly hitting Kurt in the process. "Whoa! I guess I'm a little out of practice at this. What does that count as? All the numbers added up together? Or do I have to try again?"  
>After placing the spinner back in it's rightful spot, Kurt looked at the rulebook. "No! Look, dad, it says you f-for-forfeit your turn." his brow furrowed at the unfamiliar word. "What does that mean?"<br>"Forfeit means I give up my chance and have to wait for the next time to have a turn." Burt explained after a moments hesitation.  
>"Oh. Hey, that means I get to go first!" he exclaimed happily while reaching for the spinner, not noticing his father's small smile.<br>"I guess so." he said, waiting for his son to go so he could take his turn. When he did spin and began moving his car, Kurt stopped him almost immediately.  
>"NO! You're going the wrong way! Mommy always says her guys HAVE to go to college, got it Mister? And you're one of her guys so you hafta go that way." he said earnestly, not noticing his father's awkward fumbling with the small red piece of plastic.<br>"Your mom's right. College is definitely the way to go." Burt said, moving his piece along the appropriate path while silently wondering if his wife was disappointed in him for not getting his degree. He thought he was doing okay for himself, but what if Lizzie had doubts? What if she thought they would be better off if he had gone to college? Would their lives be better? Did his not going screw his kids up for the future? Did he ruin their chances at getting into a good school?  
>The next few turns passed in a blur as he questioned his life choices and their long-term affects on those he cared about the most. He was snapped out of his stupor as Kurt stated that he was NOT going to get married to a girl. Burt watched in silence as Kurt placed a blue peg in the passenger seat of his car.<br>"I'm gonna marry a boy, not a girl. Mike in my reading class said girls have cooties and he always sits next to me in our reading circles. And he's a really good dancer, too. Mike's really pretty when he dances at recess. Sometimes Brittany comes over and dances with us and she's good too. A lot better than Rachel even though Rachel always talks about her dance and singing classes. Can I take a dance or music class, dad?" Kurt asked, unaware of the implications of what he'd just told his father.  
>"Uh, sure kid. We'll just have to talk to your mom about it first." Burt said, processing what Kurt had just told him. He couldn't remember the rest of the game even as they were putting it away, but Kurt kept up a steady stream of chatter through the game, talking about his friends and school and how much he loved going with the older kids for reading and math classes.<br>They finished the game and Burt oversaw Kurt's bath-time and read him a story before tucking him in, kissing his forehead, and going in to his bedroom where his wife was sitting in her rocker, knitting a small green and white blanket.  
>"Kurt's gay." he said without preamble as Elizabeth was just looking up at him.<br>"What? She asked, more from confusion at where that came from than disbelief at her husband's words. Burt quickly recapped the beginning of the game for her.  
>Elizabeth sighed internally. Her boys certainly did need her. She rubbed her belly, absently hoping for a girl to even things out a bit. "You are a wonderful man, a great provider, and the best dad our kids could hope for. Don't worry. You handled that conversation well. But Kurt isn't gay. He's seven. And no matter whether he ends up loving boys or girls or aliens, he's our boy and it doesn't matter, as long as he's happy and he and his partner treat each other well. And of course he can take a music class. I'm thinking piano to start with and we'll see from there."<p>

The Next Day

Burt picked up the phone at work, hoping this customer was nicer to their car than most of the idiots that came to the shop wondering what was wrong when they abused the hell out of their vehicles on a daily basis.  
>"Walker Tire and Lube" he said, absently wiping the grease from his hands onto his coveralls.<br>"This is Sergeant Lassiter from the Lima Police Department. I'm looking for a Burt Hummel." the man stated very matter-of-factly and Burt felt his heart drop into his shoes.  
>"Yeah. That's me."<br>"Mr. Hummel, I'm afraid your wife has been in an accident..."

8 years later

"Dad?" a small voice asked, surprising Burt with it's appearance after hardly a word in weeks.  
>"Yeah, kiddo? What's up?" he asked, thrilled his son was speaking to him again and wondering if he'd finally find out what was going on with his son.<br>"I... I was wondering if you wanted to play a game or something?" Burt didn't know how his son could sound so insecure about his wanting to spend time with him, but Kurt seemed almost terrified.  
>"Of course. Go set it up in the living room while I clean up in here." Burt told him, wondering why he was feeling a weird sense of Deja vu. Regardless, he cleared the table and quickly washed the few dishes the two of them eating his casserole had dirtied. Walking into the living room, Burt's breath caught in his throat.<br>"I know we haven't played this one since... Since mom died, but I thought, maybe... Could you tell me about her?" and Kurt looked so small and sad Burt couldn't find it in himself to deny the boy.  
>"What do you want to know?" he asked, settling onto the couch and preparing for a long, hard night.<br>"I don't know. Anything. What color do you want?" Kurt was absorbed with staring at the small cars and making sure the blue and pink pegs were carefully sorted apart from each other.  
>"I'll take red. You want to be green?" he asked, smiling a little in remembrance of his young son's fascination with the color.<br>"No..." Kurt said slowly, looking at his dad strangely. "I'd rather be blue. Unless you want me to be green. For some reason." he added the last part in a tone implying his father was insane, which Burt clearly wasn't supposed to hear.  
>"You can be whatever color you want, I just thought... Never mind. Go ahead." Burt said, gesturing at the spinner. "Your mom... God, she was beautiful. Didn't work at it though. She just was. She loved you more than anything. She kept telling me to just let you be yourself, that you were the best parts of the two of us, so you were perfect just the way you were. I think she just wanted to keep you her baby forever." He didn't mean for it to happen, but talking about Lizzie like this, with this game so closely associated with his last few memories of her, and saying that word... Burt may have started crying, just a little bit. It was enough for Kurt to look up in alarm though.<br>"Oh my God. Dad? Are you okay? I knew this was a bad idea. I shouldn't have... God."  
>"It's fine, Kurt. Just something I've tried to forget about over the years." Burt said as he braced himself for the next part. They might not have talked much lately, but he still knew his son.<br>"...What?" Kurt asked eventually, curiosity winning out over worrying if his dad was okay (if he wasn't willing to tell Kurt, he wouldn't have said anything in the first place). He started the game by spinning and moving his piece down the "College" path.  
>"Your mom... She was pregnant when that guy hit her."<br>"What?" Kurt asked numbly, hand frozen on his tiny plastic car.  
>"She was pregnant." Burt repeated. "We just found out the day before, actually."<br>"Oh my God." Kurt's hand was shaking as he withdrew it and folded it tightly with the other in his lap.  
>"Yeah." Burt agreed, moving his car before being stopped by his son's words.<br>"You didn't go to college. And why didn't you ever tell me?"  
>"I'm never right with this game." Burt muttered before addressing his son. "I didn't go to college. Doesn't mean I don't think it's the best way to get ahead in life. God, Kurt. You were a kid who just lost his mom. I wasn't about to add to that. Besides, your mom and I agreed to wait to tell you about the baby in case something happened. Something happened."<br>"I guess. But... I should have known." Kurt replied stubbornly.  
>"Hey, you know now." there was a tense silence for a few minutes until Kurt nervously looked up at his father. He slowly, deliberately moved his hand and placed a small blue peg in the passenger seat of his car.<br>Burt couldn't help himself. He honestly tried, knowing it would hurt his boy, but he just started laughing. The absolutely crushed look on Kurt's face as he moved to stand up and leave sobered him up quickly.  
>"No Kurt, sit down. It's not what you think!" Burt grabbed his son's wrist and tugged him back down to sit on the sofa with him. "I'm not laughing at you. I promise. You're my boy. That's nothing to laugh at."<br>"Then why did you start laughing?" Kurt demanded harshly. "If you aren't laughing at me trying to be honest about- about who I am and what I want-" he choked off a sob.  
>"The last time we played this game you told me girls had cooties and you were going to marry a boy. You talked about this boy, Mike? Mark? Anyway, you said he was pretty when you danced at recess and even though you mentioned two girls, this boy was the only one who was pretty." Burt explained, caught up in remembering.<br>"Really?" Kurt asked, pouting despite the smile creeping across his face. "I guess that makes this a little anti-climactic then, if I came out when I was seven."  
>"I guess so. But isn't that a good thing?" Burt was not ashamed to say he was confused, though happy as his son fell into his normal self with that out of the way.<br>"Hm. True. So did I really have a crush on Mike? what did mom say?" he asked curiously, resuming the game and eager to know more about the past.  
>"It sure seemed that way... He still think girls have cooties?"<br>"Dad."  
>"It's a valid question."<br>"Dad. Focus. Mom. What did she say? What did she think?" and he wouldn't admit it, but this might have been just as important to him as his dad's reaction. His mom had known before she died and he NEEDED to know what she though of it. Of him.  
>"Your mom was an amazing woman. And she loved you so much. She told me it didn't matter if you loved boys or girls or aliens or whatever, as long as you and the person you were with were happy and treated each other well." Burt recalled with a smile and a tear, hoping he conveyed his agreement with His late wife.<br>"Really?"  
>"Really."<p>

The end

Make my birthday awesome and review? Please?


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